Annual Report Year 2009 - Civil and Environmental Engineering

NEW FACULTY
ERICH HESTER
Erich Hester received his doctorate
in ecology from the University of
North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 2008.
He earned his master’s degree in civil
and environmental engineering from
Stanford University in 1998, and his
bachelor’s degree in biology from Dartmouth
College in 1992.
While pursuing his doctorate, Hester
was an Environmental Protection
Agency STAR Graduate Fellow for two
years. He also held a UNC Kenan Fellowship
for four years at UNC.
He has professional experience at
four companies. He served as a civil
engineer at Herrera Environmental
Consultants of Seattle, Wash. (2002-
2003), Philip Williams and Associates
of San Francisco (2001-2002), and
LFR of Emeryville, Ca. (1998-2001).
He also served as a staff scientist at
Ecology and Environment, Inc., of San
Francisco from 1993 until 1995.
His varied work included performing
hydrologic, hydraulic and geomorphic
analysis and design for stream and
wetland ecological habitat restoration
and water resources projects.
WILLIAM WRIGHT
William J. Wright joined the Via Department
of Civil and Environmental
Engineering as an associate professor.
He is a member of its structural
engineering and materials program
area.
Wright received his bachelor’s degree
in civil engineering (CE) from the
University of Maryland at College Park
in 1986, his master’s degree in structural
engineering, also from University
of Maryland in 1988, and his Ph.D. in
CE from Lehigh University in 2003.
His research is in the fatigue and
fracture of high performance steels,
performance and evaluation of truss
bridge connections, horizontally
curved steel girder bridges, forensic
He also
performed
analytical and
numerical modeling
of water
movement and
chemical migration
in groundwater,
surface
water, and ambient
air for soil
and groundwater
contaminant
remediation
projects. HESTER
He is a registered
Professional Engineer in Washington
State.
His research interests focus on how hydrology,
hydraulics, and geomorphology
influence ecological health in streams, rivers,
and wetlands. His goal is to advance
process-based knowledge to allow better
informed land use planning, ecological
restoration design, and preservation of
aquatic ecosystems.
He is particularly interested in how
complexity and heterogeneity in physical
evaluation of
bridge failures
and modular
steel bridge systems.
His primary
research interest
involves
development
and experimental
evaluation of
new, innovative
bridge systems
that can meet
three critical WRIGHT
requirements:
rapid construction, life cycle durability,
and cost effectiveness. He has targeted
structure (bathymetry, topography, substrate
composition, large woody debris,
floodplain forest patterns) affect water
exchange among channel, floodplain,
and hyporheic environments, and how
this affects ecologically relevant properties
and processes like temperature,
flow and retention of water, and biogeochemical
cycling.
While stresses due to urbanization,
agriculture, forestry, and resource extraction
are substantial, he is becoming
increasingly convinced that climate
change is one of the biggest challenges
from the scientific and landscape
management perspective.
As a result, he is also interested in
how climate change will alter the quantity,
timing, and temperature of hydrologic
flows through river and wetland
systems; how such altered hydrology
will influence aquatic ecosystems; and
how humans can use knowledge of relevant
hydrological and ecological processes
to help minimize the ultimate
ecological impact of climate change
and ease the transition to this new
ecological state.
this “Bridge of the Future” goal as the
overriding principle guiding the FHWA
research program.
He is currently the principal investigator
for two research projects in the
structures laboratory at FHWA: Fatigue
Resistance of Orthotropic Bridge Deck
Welds Produced with the Hybrid Laser
Assisted Welding (HLAW) Process and
Design and Evaluation of Gusset Plates
for Major Truss Bridges.
He teaches courses in structural steel
design and in bridge engineering.
Among his honors, Wright received
the 2008 Richard S. Fountain Award
from the American Iron and Steel Institute
and the AASHTO T-14 Steel Bridge
See Wright, page 11
10 | VIA REPORT | 2009